The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-08-18
Unparalleled E..... !!
An Excursi n for Pleasure Re.
suits In the Death of Over
One Hundred and T rri-
by WGunding Four
times that Number.

CnaC mas ever OCcuTT0u III blis ubu uH :
doubtedly any country, took place on
an excursion train on the Toledo, Pc
oria & Western r. r. last Wednesday
night. What gave promise to many
of trip of pleasure proved a speedy
transit to disaster and death. Voices
that but q moment before were min
Cling in tones of mirth and pleasure,
were hushed in death or crying out in
agonizing pain from mortal injuries.
The Chicago Times gives the follow
ing account of the horror, from spe-
cial correspondent at the scene of the
awful catastrophe =" All the railroad
horrors in the history of this country
were surpassed three miles east of
Chatsworth (Ill.) last night, when an
excursion train on the Toledo, Peoria
& Western road dropped through a
burning bridge, and over one hundred
people were killed, and four times that
number more or less badly injured.
The train was composed of six sleep.
ing cars, six day coaches and chair
cars. and three baggage cars. 1t was
carrying nine hundred and sixty pas
sengers, all excursionists, and was
bound for Niagara Falls. The train
had been made up all along the line of
the Toledo, Peoria & Western Road
and the excursionists hailed from va
rious points in Central Illinois, the
bulk of them, however, coming from
Peoria. A special and cheap rate had
b cen made for the excursion, and all
sorts of people took advantage of it
When the train drew out of Peoria at
8 O'Clock last evening it was loaded to
its utmost capacity. Every berth in
the sleeper was taken, and the day cars
carried sixty people each. The train
was so heavy that two engines were
hitched to it, aud when it passed this
place it was an hour and half behind
time. Chatsworth, the next station
east of here, is six miles off, and the
run there was matle in seven minutes.
so the terrible momentum of those
fifteen coaches and two heavy engines
shooting through space at the rate of
almost a mile minute. can be under
stood. No stop was made at Chats
worth, and on and on the heavy train
with its living freight sped through
the dark ness of the night. Three
miles east of Chatsworth is a little
slough, aud where the railroad track
crosses a dry run about ten feet deep
and fifteen wide Over this was stretch
ed an ordinary wooden trestle bridge,
and as the excursion train came thun'
dering down on it, what was the hor-
ror of the engineer on the front engine
when he saw that the bridge was afire
Right up before his eyes leaped the
bright flames, and the next instant he
was among them There was no tim"
70 stop. Had there been warning, il
would have taken half q mile to stop
hat crashing mass Of wood, iron and
human lives, aud the train was within
yne hundred yards of the red toneued
messenger of death before they flashed
their fatal signals iu the engineers
face. But he passed over Ia safety the
6rst engine keeping the rails. As il
went over the bridge fell beneath it,
and it could only have been the ter
rifle speed of the train which saved
the lives of the engineer and his fire.
man. But the next engine went down
aud instantly the deed of death was
done. Car crashed into car, coaches
piled one on top of another, and in the
twinkling of an eye nearly one hun
dred people found instant death. and
fifty more were SO hurt they could not
live. AS for the wounded, they were
everywhere. Only the sleeping coae b.
es escaped. and as the startled and
half dressed passengers came tumbling
out of them they found such scene
of death as is rarely witnessed, and
such work to do that it seemed as ii
human hands were utterly incapable
1t lacked but five minutes of midnight.
Down in the ditch lay the second en-
gine, engineer McClintock dead, and
fireman Applegate badly injured. On
top were piled the three baggage cars,
one on top of another like q child's
card house after he had swept it with
his hand. Then comes the six day
coaches. They We're telescOped as cars
never were before. and three of them
were pressed into just space enough
for one The second car had mounted
off its trucks, crashed through the car
ahead of it. crushing the wood work
aside like tinder and lay there resting
on the tops of the seats, while every
passenger in the front car was lying
dead and dying underneath. Out OF
that car but four people came out alive
On top of the second car lay the third,
and although the latter did not cover
its bearer as completely as the one be-
meath, its bottom was smesred with
the blood of its victims. The other
three cars were not SO badly crushed,
but they were broken and twisted in
every conceivable way, and every
crushed timber and beam represented
q crushed human frame and broken
bone. Instantly the air was filled with
the cries of the wounded and the
shrieks of those about to die; the
groans of men, the screams of women
united to make an appalling sound
and above all could be heard the ago
nizing cries of little children, as in
some instances they lay pinned along.
side of their dead parents. And there
was another terrible danger yet to be
met. The bridge was still burning
and the wrecked cars were laying on
and around the fercely burning em.
hers. Everywhere in the wreck were
wounded and unhurt men, women and
children, whose lives could be saved
if they could be gotten cut, but whose
death, and death in a most horrible
form, was certain if the twisted wood
of the broken cars caught fire and tc
| fight the fire there was not drop o.
water and only some fifty able bodied